lule 8: Teaching listening

In principle, the objective of listening comprehelsign practice in the classroom is that rtrrd.n6 should learn to function successfully in real-life listening sitations. This being so, it makes sense to examine first of all what real-life listening is, and whai sorts of things the listener needs to be able to do in order to comprehend satisfactorily in a variety of situations.

Task Real-lifelisteningsituations
Stage I : Gathering samPles

Make a st of as many situations as lfou can think of where people are listening to other people in their ovn mother tongue. These include' of coor".,iitoations where they may be doing other things besides listening speaking, usually - but the essntial point is that they need to be a"ble to understnd what is said in order to function satisfactorily in the situation. One way of doing this task is to talk yoruself tluough a routine day and note aII the different listening experiences that occur' Now compare your list with that given in Box 8. t. Are there any items there which you ad not thought off Are there any items you had which this list does not include? In any case, if ou put the two lists together - yours and mine - you should have a fairly representative selection of listening situations. BOX 8.1: LISTENING SITUATIONS
interview instructions
loudspeaker announcements radio news

theatre show
telephone chat lesson, lecture conversation, gossiP watching television story-telling

committee meeting
shopping
@ Cambridge UniverstY Press 1996

typical characteristics Irooking at the list you have compiled, can you frnd some features that seem
Stage 2: Finding

to be common to most of the situations? Such features might be associated with: the kind of language that is usually used; the kind of interaction; what the listener is doingt- For example, in most situatipns the speaker

105

8 Teaching listening

in a rather informal' improvising as he or she speaks, wficfr results situations the listener is disorganized kind oti""d"g"; and in most Can you think of responding to what iJ;i";;tid as weII as listening' characteristics? =o"L "o**on not be able to find many idet" This is a rather difficult task, and' you may possibie, and then compare themm& Share your ideas witfr clfeagues, if the suggestions given in the next section'

Characteristics of reat-tife tistening situations

1. lnformal sPoken discourse

listen to is informal and spontaneous: the Most of the spoken d;;;;;;;. rather than reading aloud or speaker is making t, "r, ; or she.goes along to the transcription of a samPr' reciting from memorvlg." *rghl l_i"k1to refei lacks, of course, illustradom of such language ,h.;; i;g;*i o.r, though this ti'ngt' in vocal pitch or volume' of - ourelv auditorv .h;;;.;;titt " 'uth i,,iotrt ,p.".i', has various interesting features: .chunks,. It is usually broken into short chunks. In a conversation' Brevity of usually in short turns of a few secont ,rk. ;;; io
example, people
each.

'ptak,

is often slurred, and noticeablr Pronunciation. The pronunciation of words given in a dictional:.]l7 representation different from the phonological cannot' which have ma'E for English ;;;;;;i.;t .*r*pt.t t". i"^"oni,in iess. o bviou', so l'"y." g'' i",L rh; ; ; :"'1ll:: include (For a right orlSh*e go?' for Shall we goi

discussion of this see Brown, t977 ') in English you might' for Vocabulary. ttt. uo.rrrty it .,f'"" toloqt'ia;

;;;g.;;"'orright'
d.tr.d
example,

;;;;;."

;;il;

fir all

in writing you would u" *a'' " !'!rt"-:.:,!:'^1: unsr a mmat ic al : utte r ances'o ..1#X,: J:".ilt ;;;;i, ;;"i, r i , o-.*r,". structure may cha4r not usually divide neatly into sentences; a grammatical in mid-utterance; unfinished clauses are common' .Noise,. There *ill b., ..-rr, ,*o"", of 'noise': bits of the discourse that a* ";;;.ili6t. is concerned am ,o ,tr.-fr"t.i-rrrJifr.r.fot" as far as he or she are not said clearly' or meaningless 'rroir"i. itti, 'y bt because the words not atrending - any not known to th. nlrr oi..r,rr. the hearer is of p:r cent "l-y than less somewhar 10.0 of reasons. w. orriiv ltlpr"n"" 1!5 sirn'ry or items missing the guessing by is said to us, making p i..ifr. deficit what we can from the rest' ;;t-g them and [aterittg deal more than is strictly Redundancy. 1.n. rp.r't.t norally says a good includes such thingr Redundancy necessary for the .orru.yi"g of ti't 'nt"'ge' selfparenthesis' in ulterances with as repetition, prrrpt'lrr", iottl"g extent some to This er' well' medn, I ..tio", tr. ot. of 'fillels' toth 's .o*p..tr"i"s for the gaps created by'noise'' it is ir?o'"rr" will not be repeated verbatim;.normally N.*rJp",i ";;;;;iy ion. th. ,tto"g,t'it redundancluv for to*^p""t'ted *'v-u" ,r.", ih.t repetition or of the discourse, and y the possibility of requesting explanation.
lrse guy*ft"..

r06

What does real-life listening involve?

2. Listener expectaton and purpose The listener almost always knows in advance something about what is going to be said: who is speaking, for example, or the basic topic. Linked to this is his or her purpose: we normally have some objective in listening beyond understanding for its own sake - to find our something, for example. And we expect to hear something relevant to our purpose. 3. Looking as well as listening Only a very small proportion of listening is done 'blind' - to the radio or telephone for example. Normall we have something to look atthatis linked to what is being said: usually the speaker him- or herself, but often other visual stimuli as well - for example a map, scene or object, or the environment in general.

4. Ongoing, purposeful listener response The listener is usually responding at intervals as the discourse is going on. It is relatively rarefor us to listen to extended speech and respond only at the end. The responses, moreover, are normally directly related to the listening purpose, and are only occasionally a simple demonstration of comprehension. 5. Speaker attenton The speaker usually directs his or her speech at the listener, takes the listener's character, intentions etc. into account when speaking, and often responds directly to his or her reactions, whether verbal or non-verbal, by changing or adapting the discourse.

non

Think of a situation where you yourself have recently been listening. Hovrr many of the abore features in fact apply?

The title above is, of course, a contradiction in terms: classroom listening is not real-life listening. However, in order to provide students with training in listening comprehension that will prepare them for effective functioning outside the classroom, activities should give learners practice in coping with at least some of the features of real-life situations. For example: it would seem not very helpful to base listening exercises mainly on passages that are read aloud and followed by comprehension questions, when we know that very little of the discourse we hear in real life is read aloud, and we do not normally respond by answering comprehension questions. It is worth noting also that listening actiyities based on simulated real-life situations are likely to be more motivating and interesting to do than contrived textbook comprehension exercises. If you did not do Unit One, look now at the section Characteristics of real-life listening situations on pages 106-L07. Below are some guidelines for the design of listening texts and tasks that are based on
these ideas.
I

t07

ti

8 Teaching tistedln

Guidelines
1. Listening texts Informal tJk. Mort listening texts should be based on discourse that is either genuine improvised, ,por-trr.ors speech, or at least a fair imitation of it. A iypical wriiten rext th;t is read aloud as a basis for classroom listening y is unlikely to incorporate the characteristics of informal speech as "iri descried above, and will thus provide the learners with no practice in understanding the most common form of spoken discourse' Speaker visibility; direct speakerJistener interaction. The fact that in most listening situtions the speaker is visible and directly interacting with the listener"should make ,. ihittk twice about the conventional use of audio recordings for listening comprehension exercises. It is useful to the learners you impiovise at leastiome of the listening texts yourself in their presence ior, if fasible, ger another comperent speaker of the language to do so). .o also makes a positive contribution to the effectiveness of listening practice, in that it supplies the aspect of speaker visibility and the general visual environment of the text. Single exposure. If real-life discourse is rarely 'replayed' then learners should b .orrirged to develop the ability to extract the information they need from single hring. The discourse, therefore, must be redundant enough to pr,id" this rformation more than once within the original text; and where possible hearers should be able to stop the speaker to request a repeat or explanation.

2. Listening tasks Expectations. Learners should have in advance some idea about the kind of going to hear. Thus the mere instruction 'Listen to the passage ...' is ih.y "r. thn something like: 'You are going to hear a husband and wife less ,sefil discussing their plans for the summer ...'. The latter instruction activates learners'ielerr.rt schemata (their own previous knowledge and concepts of facts, scenes, events, etc.) and enables them to use this previous knowledge build anticipatory 'scaffolding'that will help them understand. Purpose. Simirl5 fistening p*pose should be provided by_the definition of pi"-r.t task, which should involve some kind of clear visible or audible iesponse. Thus, rather than say simply: 'Listen and understand ...' we t givl a specific instruction such as: 'Listen and find out where the family are going fr their summer holidays. Mark the places on your map-.' The efin-ition of a purpose enables the listener to listen selectively for significant information - asir, as well as more natural, than trying to understand

everything. Ongoing listiner response. Finall the task should usually involve intermittent ."..po-rrr.. during ihe listening; learners should be encouraged to respond to the information-they are looking for as they hear it, not to wait to the end.

Practica I ct a ss room a pp I i catio n

The guidelines given above are, I believe, valid and useful as general bases for the design of effective listening materials and tasks. They are not, however, 108

RealJife listening in the classroom

rules: they do not, as we have seen, apply to every real-life situation; moreover, there may be very good pedagogical iesons for deviating from some of them in the classroom. Putting aside, for the moment, the criterion'nearness to real-life listening', let us consiJer these guidelines from the point of view of practical classroom teaching. The lattr involves pedagogical considerations no less important than authenticity of the listening experience, such as classroom management, costeffective use of time, student motivation, interest and learning preferences. For example: one pedagogical advantage of 'real-life' listening situations as a basis for compreheniion exercises is, as previously noted, that these are motivating todo - far more than artificial texts-with-questions. On the other hand, a diiadvantage of the guideline 'single exposure' is that it might conflict with your desire to1.t yoor sludents listen more than once in order to give them more practice, prevent frustration and give them another chance to succeed in doing the task.

uestion

\Mhat practical advantages or problems can lrou foresee, or have you er.perl.oced, that might derive from applying any of the guidelines listed

earlier? My own

u:Lswers to this follor.

lmplementing the guidelines: some specific practcal implications

The

texts implicition of this guideline is that at least some of your stud-ents' listening practici should be base on a text which you yourself improvise for your class,
1. Listening

and which is heard onlY once. Advantages. Less recorded material means less of the,expense, inconvenience and oJcasional breakdown that the frequent use of tape-recorders entails. You can also adapt the level and speed of the text to your specific students directly to their needs. and respond -or problems reservations. Many teachers lack confidence in their own ability to improvise fluently in the target language, or ?r9 -worried their spoken lrrgrag. is not a good enough ('nativel model for students to listen to; such teaihe prefer to rel if not on recordings, then at least on a written text they .r.ri.ad aloud.'florr.r.r, most foreign language teachers, even if not native speakers of the target language, can present a perfectly competent improvised speech modefthough mrny find this difficult to believe and are

"H::'#r'llff:trTl* rearners onry hear you, rhey wiu not have the
listening to different voices and accents. opportunity -Finall to practise o" thl point of singlJexposure listening: even if learners.can do the one listening, you ay wish to let them hear the text again,.for the trsk "fti sake of further .rporri. and practice and better chances of successful performance. Conclusion. In general, it is important for foreign language teachers to be able to improvise"speechin the target language. Feq however, can do'qo without 109

8 Teaching listening

,[ *r

prompts or notes of some kind; it helps to have before you a list of the main points you want to mention, or the picture or diagram you have to describg or the answers you plan to elicit from the class. Having said this, there certainly is room for the occasional use of recordings, in order to give practice in situations where we listen 'blind', in order to expose learners to different voices and accents. .W.e shall also often wish to let our students listen to the text more than once, for the reasons given above. Perhaps a good compromise might be to ask them to try to do as much as they can on the first listening, and check results; and then let them listen again for the sake of further practice and improved answers.

2. Listening tasks: expectations and purpose Advantages. Providing the students wirh some idea of what they are going to hear and what they are asked to do with it helps them ro succeed in the tas as well as raising motivation and interest. A visual focus can often provide this: for example, if the task involves marking a picture, diagram, or map -

or even a written text.

Problems or reservations. occasionally we may wish to ask students to find what the passage is about without any previous hint: for the sake of the fun and challenge, and to encourage them to use real-world knowledge to help interpretation. Also, there are some excellent listening activities that need clear task at all beyond the comprehension itself: listening to stories for example, or watching exciting films. conclusion. If there is no pre-set task we should be careful to ensure that the text itself is stimulating enough, and of an appropriate level, to ensure motivated and successful listening on the part of the learners.
3. Ongoing listener response

Advantages. The fact that learners are active during the listening rather than waiting to the end keeps them busy and helps to prevent boredom. Problems or reservations. The most naturally-occurring response speech is usually impractical in the classroom: you cannot her an monitoi the spoken responses of all the class together! Thus most answers will have to l in the form of physical movements, which can be monitored visuallS or by written responses which can be checked later. A more serious problem is that materials writers often overload the task: too many responses are demanded of the learners, information is coming in too fast (not enough 'redundancy') and there is no time to respond durig listening. The result is frustration and irritation: even if the lisiening textls repeated the initial feeling of failure is something that should be avided. conclusion. check the activity by doing it yourselfor with colleagues before administering it: make sure the task is do-able! If necessar reduce the demands, at least the first time round.

110

Learner problems

The topic of .listening practice as a preparation for real-life listening comprehension has been examined in Units One and Two. Here, we shall be '7hat aspects of looking at some problems from the point of view of the learner. listening to a foreign language are particularly difficult for learners to cope with, and what can we as teachers do about them?

Inquiry Learnerproblenrs
Stage 1: Defining some problems Read through the list given in Box 8.2 of some difficulties that learners have with listening to a foreign langruage. Add more if you wish.
Stage 2: Interview Interview some learners to frnd out which of these they consider particularly problematic, whether there are any others they can suggest, and what sort of practice they find helpful. Stage 3: Summary On yor:r own or with colleagues, try to summarize the main problems and make some suggestions as to what the teacher can do to help solve them. Some comnents follovt.

BOX 8.2: LEARNER DFFICULTIES lN LISTENING

1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

trouble catching the actual sounds of the foreign language. I have to understand every word; if I miss something, I feel I am failing and get
I have

worried and stressed.

I can understand people if they talk slowly and clearly; I can't understand fast, natural native-sounding speech. I need to hear things more than once in order to understand. I find it difficult to'keep up' with all the information I am getting, and cannot think ahead or predict. lf the listening goes on a long time I get tired, and find it more and more difficult to concentrate.

@ Cambridge

University Press 1996

Comments on the learner problems described in Box 8.2.

1.

Trouble with sounds

Since most listeners rely mostly on context for comprehension, they are often

themselves unaware of inaccurate sound perception. See Module 4z Teaching pronunciation for some ideas on how to diagnose these kinds of problems. 2. Have to understand every word This is a very common problim, often unconsciously fostered by tephers

8 Teaching listening

belim andlor listening cdmprehension materials which encourage the learner to o The information. (equally) important t'hri .r.rythinfthat is said bears lffon as well as comprehension, ineffeciive ,"J.6iria evlrything often resuitsln i..frrrg. .f-iatigue ,.rf"ilor.. e may need to give learners practice in selectirc
tasks that ask them

mother i*".il"f.f t.r information - something they do naturally in their occasional them set and learners, point_to_ thi ;il;;;."r. ;hould explain this items o{

a1.r" ,.Ltir.ly long text for one or two limited

information.
3. Can't understand fast, natural native speech Learners will ofren ask you to slow down and speak clearll . by which they " pro"ounce each word the way it would sound in isolation; and the leaa i"-p,,i." is to do as they ask. But if yoL_ do, you _aI: not helping them to h.*rydry infrmal rp.".. Thev should be exposed to as much

;;;;;;i

,porrirrr"ors infoimal talk as they can successfully understand as soon as them why. One of the rriUf.; and it is worth taking the_timeto explain to them with this sm provide yu_can is that talk ;;;;;;;r of teacher-producd fluent as their more and faster getting them, olir.or.. at the righi level for
listening skills develop.
4. Need to hear things more than once As noted in Unit TwJabove there may be very good pedagogical reasons for lih e*posirrg learners to texts more than once. But ih. fa.t remains that in real we can and listening; wirh 'one-off' thy arften going ro have to cope c.rrirrly mak uJeful contributi,on to their learning if we can improve their ability do ro.'7e can for example, try to use texts that include 'redundanr" information is presented more than f"s"i.r and within which the esientiai the opportunity to fequest give learners trr.. ,rd not too intensively; and listening. clarification or repetition during the 5. Find it difficult to keeP uP Again, the learner feels overioaded with incoming information. The solution fo rrt 1.o much) to slow down the discourse but rather to encourage them to . . ,.1a", ,top trying to understand everything, learn to pick out what is essential and allow themselves to ignore the rest. 6. Get tired This is one reason for not making listening comprehension passages too long overall, and for breaking them up into short'chunks' through pause, listener response or change of speaker.

This unit provides a fairly full

though not exhaustive - taxonomy of lis comprehsion activity types you may find in coursebooks or listening .o*preh"rrrion books. Thire are various ways of classifying such a taxonom-lr

1.L2

Types of activities

by listening skill, by level of difficulty and so on. I have chosen ro do so by the amount and complexity of response demanded of the learner. study the list, and add any further rypes you can think of that I have omitted. Then perhaps try the task suggested at the end of the unit.

Types of listening activities

1. No overt response

The learners do not have to do anything in response to the listening; however, facial expression and body language often show if they are followilg or nor. Stories. Tell a joke or real-life anecdote, retell a well-known stor read a story from a book; or play a recording of a story. If the story is well-chosen, learners are likely to be motivated to attend and understand in order to enjoy

it.

Songs. Sing a song yourself, or play a recording of one. Note, however, that no response is required learners may simply enjoy the music without

if

understanding the words. Entertainment: films, theatre, deo. As with stories, if the content is really entertaining (interesting, stimulating, humorous, dramatic) learners will be motivated to make the effort to understand without the need for any further
task.
2. Short responses

obeying instructions. Learners perform actions, or draw shapes or pictures, in response to instructions. Ticking off items. A list, text or picture is provided: listeners mark or tick off words/components as they hear them within a spoken description, story or simple list of items. Thue/false. The listening passage consists of a number of statements, some of which are true and some false (possibly based on material the class has just learnt). Learners write ticks or crosses to indicate whether the statements are right or wrong; or make brief responses ('True!' or 'False!' for example); or they may stay silent if the statements are right, say 'No!' if they are wrong. Detecting mistakes. The teacher tells a story or describes something the class knows, but with a number of deliberate mistakes or inconsistencies. Listeners raise their hands or call out when they hear something wrong. Cloze. The listening text has occasional brief gaps, represented by silence or some kind of buzz. Learners write down what they think might be the missing word. Note that if the text is recorded, the gaps have to be much more widely spaced than in a reading one; otherwise rhere is not enough time to listen, understand, think of the answer, and write. If you are speaking the text yourself, then you can more easily adapt the pace of your speech to the speed of learner responses. Guessing definitions. The teacher provides brief oral definitions of a person, place, thing, action or whatever; learners write down what they think it is. Skimming and scanning. A not-tooJong listening text is given, improvised or recorded; learners are asked to identify some general topic or inforhation (skimming), or certain limited informarion (scanning) and note thetinswer(s).
173

8 Teaching

tsten|:
'Tritten questions inviting brief answers may be provided in advance; or a grid, with certain entries missing; or a picture or diagram to be altered or completed.

3. Longer responses Answering questions. One or more questions demanding fairly full responses are given in advance, to which the listening text provides the answer(s). Because of the relative length of the answers demanded, they are most conveniently given in writing. Note-taking. Learners take brief notes from a short lecture or talk. Paraphrasing and translating. Learners rewrite the listening text in different words: either in the same language (paraphrase) or in another (translation). Summarizing. Learners write a brief summary of the content of the listening
passage.

Long gap-filling. A long gap is left, at the beginning, middle or end of a text; learners guess and write down, or say, what they think might be missing.
4. Extended responses Here, the listening is only a 'jump-off point' for extended reading, writing or speaking: in other words, these are 'combined skills' activities.

Problem-solng. A problem is described orally; learners discuss how to deal with it, and/or write down a suggested solution. Interpretation. An extract from a piece of dialogue or monologue is provided, with no previous information; the listeners try to guess from the words, kin of voices, tone and any other evidence what is going on. At a more sophisticated level, a piece of literature that is suitable for reading aloud (some poetry, for example)can be discussed and analysed.

Follow-up task

tistening activities in coursebooks

Any one specific set of materials is unlikely, of course, to prwide of all the types sted here, though if you look through the books listed under Frrfh er readingbelow, you should find most of them. But certairy teachers and learners have a right to e:q)ect a fair range and variety in the specific materials usedin their corse. Go tluough the list of,T'tpes of listening activities again, marking activity t>es that seem to rou particularly usefi:I, or even essential. Then look at a coursebook or listening comprehension book that you are familiar with, and see how many of these rre represented. Are there many that are neglected? Are there others that are over-used? If the range and variety in a book liou re using is very limited, ]rou may be able to remedy this by improvising llour own activities or usingr supplementary materials: English teachers will find some suggestions for such materials under Fu rther re ading belovrr.
.

114